The families of two U.S. citizens have come forward to Fox News to report that the pair died suddenly while visiting the Dominican Republic.
They have been identified as Chris Palmer, a 41-year-old Army veteran from Kansas who died April 18, 2018, and Barbara Diane Maser-Mitchell, a 69-year-old retired nurse from Pennsylvania who died on Sept. 17, 2016, after falling critically ill at a resort.
The State Department confirmed their deaths to Fox News on Thursday.
The two deaths reported to Fox News come as US and Dominican officials are probing the sudden deaths of nine Americans on the island dating back to June 2018. Maser-Mitchell’s family came forward after learning of the other deaths through recent news reports and seeing similarities.
Dominican government officials have said that the deaths were coincidental and attributable to natural causes. Concerned about the impact of negative attention on their tourism industry –some 6 million people from around the world vacation there, and more than 2 million of these are from the U.S. — officials from different government agencies have hit back at theories that the deaths were due to adulterated alcohol, pesticide exposure or deliberate poisoning.
On Friday, Dominican authorities are scheduled to hold a press conference in which they’re expected to discuss final autopsy reports showing why the U.S. tourists died after falling suddenly and critically ill. – READ MORE